Among the list of generally absurd charges that the US has levelled against Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou, the most absurd is the accusation that her company and/or its subsidiaries are conducting commerce with Iran. In reality, the sanctions that Donald Trump’s administration has introduced against Iran are strictly unilateral. These unilateral sanctions have been overtly rejected by the European Union, by Germany, France and Britain in particular (aka the E3), by Russia and China and also by Canada, the country that conspired to unlawfully detain Meng upon a request form Washington. Therefore, even if Meng did millions of dollars worth of commerce with Iran, she has not broken the law of her Chinese homeland nor of Canada. This last point was overtly highlighted by Canada’s former Ambassador to China, John McCallum.
Practically speaking, Meng has become the most prominent victim of the US trade war with China and America’s simultaneous attempts to purge Huawei products from the markets of nations traditionally allied with the United States. And yet, if one is to believe the Iran narrative as it relates to the detention of Meng Wanzhou, one ought to also scrutinise the leadership of three major US allies – Germany, France and Britain. The reason for such scrutiny is due to the fact that whilst Meng has merely been accused of heading a company that is allegedly doing business with Iran, the governments of Germany, France and Britain (the E3) have just inaugurated a Paris based special-purpose vehicle called the Instrument in Support of Trade Exchanges (INSTEX).
The stated purpose of INSTEX is to allow European companies and public sector entities to continue trading with Iran in spite of the fact that US controlled banks and transaction systems are doing everything they can to make such commerce as difficult as possible. In this sense, Germany’s Angela Merkel, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Britain’s Theresa May are doing openly what Meng is accused of enabling privately.
Thus, if the US is to act consistently in terms of ordering the detention of foreigners passing through Canada who happen to have orchestrated commerce with Iran, this means that the next time that Merkel, Macron or May visit their NATO partners in Ottawa, Washington must order their arrest.
Of course, such a situation will never happen because whilst Washington and the E3 have a profound disagreement regarding Iran, the EU as a whole and the United States remain allies. Therefore, it can only be concluded that in ordering the cruel and unusual detonation of Meng Wanzhou, the US was merely using trumped up boogie man style charges in order to exert hostility against China as a whole and an innocent Chinese businesswoman more specifically.
The contrast between US attitudes towards the E3 leadership and US attitudes towards Meng, tell the world everything it needs to know about the poisonous and racist mentality of many in Washington towards China as a country and Chinese as a people.
